USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Royalston > The history of the town of Royalston, Massachusetts > Part 35
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While living in Royalston Mr. Hart went to the Centre School and attended church, when Rev. Mr. Perkins was the minister.
GEORGE ELLIS WHITNEY
George Ellis Whitney, one of Royalston's successful sons in the business world, was born at Royalston Jan. 30, 1864.
He is a son of George and Eliza Jane (Simpson) Whitney and was educated in the public schools of Royalston and at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial School in Boston. He began his active career of a woolen manufacturer when eighteen years of age in the woolen mill of his father at South Royal- ston. He became superintendent and the business was in- corporated in 1890 and on the death of his father Dec. 26, 1897 he succeeded to the full management of the business as President and Treasurer of the Corporation.
After the destruction of the mill at South Royalston by fire in 1892 the company bought a mill in Enfield, N. H.,
394
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
and the business was continued there until it was sold out to the American Woolen Co. He then became associated with that Company, having charge of the Mills at Enfield and Lebanon, N. H. and Winooski, Vt., having his home at En- field. Later he removed to Burlington, Vt., and has since devoted his time to the Winooski Mills, where two thousand hands are employed.
While in New Hampshire he was prominent in the social life of the community, and was active in politics, having been a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives for the years 1897 and 1898, a member of the State Senate in 1902 and again in 1904. where he was prominent among the Republican members of that body.
He married Minnie Banks Rutter of Chicago, Ill., Oct. 20, 1897.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar, and a 32nd Degree Mason-in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rites. He is also a Life Member of the Elks. He is active in the Club and Social Life of Burlington; and is well known as a lover of good horses. He was formerly interested in baseball, and when in Royalston had a team, which was known in all this section of the country as one of the best amateur teams then playing, and some who have become great baseball players in the greater League Clubs, were members of his teams.
FREDERIC C. NICHOLS
Frederic C. Nichols, younger son of Joseph Towne and Martha Gale (Turner) Nichols is a well known banker. Born in Fitchburg he grew up in Royalston and for three years was a page in the Massachusetts Legislature. Since 1893 he has been connected with the Fitchburg National Bank and Fitchburg Savings Bank, and since 1906 has been the Treas- urer and Executive of the latter institution, the oldest Bank in Fitchburg with resources of about eight million dollars. He has been a member of the Fitchburg City Government; is a Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Fitchburg Bank & Trust Company; Director of the Fitchburg Mutual Fire Insurance Company and has also served as Presi-
FREDERICK C. NICHOLS
LEONARD NICHOLS
GEORGE E. WHITNEY
ROBERT W. ADAMS
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SONS OF ROYALSTON
dent of the Fitchburg Board of Trade & Merchants Associa- tion. He is a Director or Trustee of sundry charitable organizations of his native city. In banking circles he is well known, having been two years President of the Savings Bank Officials Club and three years Treasurer of the Massachusetts Bankers Association. No son of Royalston loves the town more than "Fred" Nichols and his interest in the town and the welfare of its citizens is constantly manifested.
He officiated as toastmaster at the 150th Anniversary celebration, and performed the duties of that position in a most graceful and efficient manner, his apt remarks being right to the point.
He married Oct. 5, 1899 Ethel Holmes, daughter of Cap- tain Augustus and Hannah M. (Perry) Holmes, in Plainfield, New Jersey. They have one daughter, Anna Holmes Nichols born in Fitchburg Oct. 24, 1905.
LEONARD NICHOLS
Leonard Nichols, eldest son of Joseph T. and Martha (Turner) Nichols, was born in Royalston, April 17, 1869. He was educated at District No. 1, in Royalston and the Fitchburg High School. He was in Boston from 1885 to 1892 in a wholesale furniture store, and went to Providence, R. I. in 1892 where he became connected with the Providence Journal. In 1894 he was ap- pointed Deputy United States Shipping Commissioner of the Port of Providence. In this position his work was so eminently satisfactory to Secretary Nagel of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and his general record so excellent, that upon the retirement of Shipping Commissioner Freeman, Mr. Nichols was appointed as United States Shipping Commissioner of the Port of Providence, a high Federal office which is closely identi- fied with the American merchant marine. Mr. Nichols is a frequent visitor to his old home in Royalston, and claims no special distinction, save that he owns the only six acres of good land in Royalston which is entirely free of rocks and stones.
ROBERT WINTHROP ADAMS
Robert Winthrop Adams was born in Royalston, Mass., Oct. 27, 1881, son of Dr. Francis Wayland and Fannie Russell
396
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
(Chase) Adams. He attended the public schools of Royalston and Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, Mass., from which he was graduated in 1900. In 1904 he was graduated from the Worces- ter Polytechnic Institute with the degree of Bachelor of Science.
After graduation he entered the employ of the B. F. Sturtevant Company, Hyde Park, Mass., as assistant in the electrical department, which position he left in 1905 to become Electrical Engineer for the D. & W. Fuse Company, Providence, R. I., where he was employed for three years, during which time he was engaged principally in research and development work relating to enclosed fuses, in recognition of which he was in 1908 awarded the advanced degree of Electrical Engineer by the Worcester Poly- technic Institute.
In 1908 Mr. Adams joined the Engineering Department of the General Electric Company at Pittsfield, Mass., from which he was transferred in 1910 to the sales office of the same concern at Boston, Mass. In 1913 he was appointed manager of the Providence office of the General Electric Company, in which position he is in immediate charge of the interests of the company in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut.
In 1906 he married Miss Pauline Whitney, daughter of Alfred H. and Susie (Davis) Whitney of Ashburnham. They have one child, Winthrop Whitney Adams, born Jan. 27, 1909, at Pittsfield, Mass.
He is the author and publisher of the Transmission Line Calculator, a device for the rapid calculation of electrical prob- lems. He is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, National Electric Light Association, New England Street Railway Club, Kappa Xi Alpha Fraternity and various Masonic Orders.
EDWIN AUGUSTUS FISHER
Edwin Augustus Fisher, eldest child of Horace and Lucy Jane Fisher, was born at Royalston, July 17, 1847. Attended the public schools of the town and a Select School at Royalston Center. He also attended New Salem Academy and Powers Institute, Bernardston, Mass., and graduated from the West- field, Mass., State Normal School in 1870. Taught school in
397
SONS OF ROYALSTON
Royalston Center in 1868-9, and the graded school at Orange, Mass., in the fall and winter of 1870 and 1871.
Early in 1871 he was employed on the construction of the Holyoke and Westfield R. R. under Lewis F. Root, Chief Engi- neer, first as rodman, and during the same year was promoted to Division Engineer. Was engaged in railroad surveys, location and construction from 1871 to 1873, in 1873 made surveys, plans and estimates for a system of street grades, sewers and water works for the town of Westfield, and in 1874 and 1875 was engineer in charge of the construction of the water works. From 1878 to 1881 was engaged in water works and railroad engineering in Western Massachusetts, and in 1881 located a portion of the proposed Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western R. R. from a point east of Little Falls to west of Utica, N. Y. From 1881 to 1889 was Engineer in the construction of railroads in New York State, and from September, 1889 to June, 1893, Superintendent of the Pittsburg Division of the Western New York & Pennsylvania R. R., with office in Oil City, Pa. From June, 1893 to June, 1896 was principal assistant Engineer in charge of the construction of an additional water supply for the city of Rochester, N. Y., and in June, 1896 was appointed City Engineer of Rochester, and has held the position to the present time. Since its creation in 1901 he has been a member and secretary of the Public Market Commission. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association, the New England Water Works Association, member and Past President of the American Society of Municipal Improvements, member and Past President of the Rochester Engineering Society, member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and member of Cyrene Commandery, Knight Templars.
On the 17th of February, 1875, Mr. Fisher married Miss Ellen F. Brakenridge of Ware, Mass., and they have six children, all living in Rochester, - Lewis Gates, a civil engineer; Julia Kendall, now the wife of Rev. Arthur Clements; Florence May, married Robert A. Copeland; Edwin Horace, a graduate of Cornell University; William Brackenridge and Fanny Bradford.
ARTHUR A. UPHAM
Arthur A. Upham, son of Benjamin W. and Phebe (Tenney) Upham, was born in Royalston Oct. 1, 1853. He graduated
398
HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
from the Westfield Normal School in 1880, after which he taught eight years in the Hitchcock Free High School, Brimfield, Mass., four years as Principal. In 1888 he became teacher of Science in the Whitewater, Wisconsin State. Normal School, which position he still occupies.
He has been a member of the State Board of Examiners, and has been Mayor of Whitewater. Is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and is Past Master of St. John's Lodge No. 57 F. & A. M. He is the author of three books, "Fifty Lessons in Wood Working"-"Frank and Kate: How they found out" and "An Introduction to Agriculture."
He married Mary F. Woods Aug. 19, 1880, who was born July 2, 1857. They have two daughters, Emily Woods, born July 22, 1881, married Edward F. Dithmar, Feb. 5, 1910, lives in Baraboo, Wis., the second daughter, Ethel Tenney was born May 20, 1885.
JOHN V. HAZEN
John Vose Hazen, son of Rev. Norman Hazen, pastor of the Royalston Congregational Church from 1847 to 1852, was born in Royalston, Nov. 22, 1850. Soon after the death of his father in 1852 he went with his mother to her old home in Atkinson, N. H., and in the Academy in that place received his preparatory education. In the fall of 1872 he entered what was then the Scientific Department of Dartmouth College, graduating there- from in the spring of 1875 with the degree of B.S. The next fall he entered the Thayer School of Civil Engineering also connected with the college and graduated from the latter in the spring of 1876, receiving the degree of C.E. In the fall of 1876 he was employed as a rodman on the Manchester and Keene, R. R. In about three months the road suspended operations and he returned home. Later in that year he went back to the same locality as rodman and became principal of the Hancock, N. H., High School. In 1877 he was employed as draughtsman on bridge design work. In the fall of that year he was offered and accepted the position of principal of Atkinson Academy in his old home town. In the fall of 1878 he was offered the position of Tutor of Mathematics in the Scientific Department of Dart- mouth College, which he accepted, and has filled various positions
399
SONS OF ROYALSTON
in the college to the present time. The positions that he has held in that institution are as follows: from 1878 to 1880 Tutor of Mathematics, 1880 to 1893 Professor of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1893 to the present time Woodman Professor of Civil Engineering and Graphics in Dartmouth College and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering in the Thayer School of Civil Engineering. He has done considerable work on water power and railroad surveys in Vermont and New Hampshire, and has been employed many times as an expert on court cases. From 19.00 to 1910 he was chairman of the Commissioners of the Village Precinct of Hanover and as such had special charge of the re-construction of the streets and sewers of the village and also acted as health officer. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and for the last fifteen years has been a member of the Board of Education of Hanover. He was married to Harriet Augusta Hurlbutt July 20, 1881. They have four children: Ethel Augusta, born Dec. 11, 1882; Fanny Vose born April 1, 1887; John Norman, born Jan. 14, 1894 and Ed- ward Elihu, born March 14, 1896. The oldest daughter gradu- ated from Smith College in 1904 and married Walter Huston Lillard, a teacher in Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. The second daughter graduated from Smith College in 1910. The sons are in college and school.
JOHN B. BOWKER
John B. Bowker, son of Charles Watson and Nancy (Sibley) Bowker, was born in Royalston, Mar. 12, 1865. He received his education in the schools of Royalston and Worcester. He engaged in farming, and was elected Secretary and Treas- urer of the Worcester Agricultural Society in Nov. 1892, which position he held until he resigned after being elected City Auditor of Worcester June 6, 1898. He resigned as auditor March, 1905 to become Business Manager of the Worcester Telegram, which position he now holds.
He has been actively interested in various agricultural organizations, was secretary and treasurer of the Central Mass. Poultry Association for two years, 1901 and 1902, Sec- retary of Worcester Central Pomona Grange in 1903, and secretary of the New England Milk Producers Union, 1897
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
and 1898 when its membership went from three hundred to thirty-six hundred.
He married Martha A. Thayer of Worcester and they have two children, Marion T. Bowker and Harold S. Bowker.
JENNER E. MORSE
Jenner E. Morse, son of Russell Morse, Jr., was born at Royalston, Nov. 29, 1859, and continued to live in this town until after the death of his mother, when he went to St. Johns- · bury, Vt., and entered St. Johnsbury Academy for the purpose of fitting himself to enter Dartmouth College; but after grad- uating from the Academy he changed his plans and instead of entering college, went to Westboro, Mass., and entered a law office, where he remained about a year and a half, when he went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and entered the law department. The following Spring he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Michigan. Later the same Spring, after the Spring Semester, he returned to Westboro and continued his law reading during the summer vacation, return- ing to Ann Arbor upon the opening of the University in the Fall, where he continued his studies and graduated in the class of 1883; with the degree of B. L. After graduating he went to Saginaw, Mich., where he has since continued to reside and practice his profession.
He has been active in politics and public affairs. Has been a member of the School Board of that city several times and was twice elected Circuit Court Commissioner of Saginaw County. In 1908, he received the nomination for Congress in the Eighth Congressional District of Michigan, but was de- feated at the polls. He was President of the Michigan Bee- keepers Association for two years, is a member of the Saginaw Board of Trade, which was one of the first associations instru- mental in bringing about the present United States Chamber of Commerce, and is also a member of the Saginaw County Bar Association and of several lodges and clubs. He has never married.
CHAPTER XVI ROYALSTON'S SOLDIER RECORD
Compiled and written by Fred W. Cross
OUR SOLDIER STOCK
One can hardly approach the duty of recording the mili- tary history of a town like Royalston without being deeply impressed with the sanctity of the task. That this small town should have furnished nearly 100 men in the War for Independence, a whole company for the defence of our coast in the second war with Great Britain, and 138 soldiers in the great struggle that kept the Union whole is sufficient evidence of the patriotic spirit which has ever characterized its citizens. Moreover, it must be remembered that when the Revolution broke cut the town's population was small, that the town had been settled only thirteen years and incorporated less than ten. But among its earliest settlers were men of sterling stock.
John Fry from Sutton, Mass., who settled on Fry Hill where his great grandson Benj. A. Fry now resides, had been an officer in the French Wars. In 1745, twenty years before he came to Royalston, he served as first lieutenant in King George's War, taking part in the expedition which reduced the French fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island and brought it under the English flag. Ten years later, in 1755, he held a royal commission as captain and took part in Sir William Johnson's expedition against Crown Point, which ended in September of that year, in the so-called "Bloody Morning Scout" and the Battle of Lake George.
Captain Peter Woodbury, who also came from Sutton and settled where Emery Holden now resides, sprung from military ancestry, and his later ability as a soldier is proven by the fact that he was honored by being successively given the command of three separate companies in the War for In- dependence.
Captain Jonathan Sibley, who settled on Gale Hill, also came of soldier stock, his father, Ensign Jonathan Sibley,
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
being a member of one of the strongest and most prolific Sutton families, as is shown by the vital records of that town.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
Royalston's military history as a town dates from the beginning of the War for Independence. It is unnecessary to here recount the causes and events which led to that conflict. Sufficient is it to say, that by the autumn of 1774, the people of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had become so exasperated by the recent acts of Parliament, especially the so-called Reg- ulating Act which virtually annulled their charter and ma- terially altered the government of the colony, that they stood ready for open and armed resistance. In defiance of the royal governor's order proroguing the General Court, which had been summoned to meet at Salem in October, about 90 rep- resentatives did meet and resolved themselves into a Pro- vincial Congress, choosing John Hancock as chairman. They then adjourned to Concord, where they would be safer from the governor's interference. Among the members of this first Provincial Congress of the Bay Colony was * Henry Bond of Royalston, who resided on what was later known as the William Eddy place, the house originally standing on an old road run- ning southeast from Joseph Chase's and near the line of the present steel towers of the Connecticut River Transmission Company.
The Congress of which Henry Bond was a member sat from October until December, 1774. It appointed a com- mittee consisting of sixteen persons with Joseph Warren as chairman "to take into consideration the state of the Prov- ince," and to supervise the duty of collecting military stores. They also directed that the taxes levied by the last General Court should not be paid to the Treasurer of the Province but to Receivers authorized by the several towns and districts.
On February 1, 1775, a second Provincial Congress as- sembled at. Cambridge, later holding adjourned sessions at Concord and Watertown. As her representative to this body,
*Henry Bond was later a member of Lieut. Jonathan Sibley's detachment and marched to Bennington on the August alarm, 1777.
-
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THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
Royalston sent t Nahum Green, whose home was on the old road in the valley west of the late John W. Stockwell's. This Congress established a permanent committee of safety with large military powers, provided for a complete organization of the militia, embodied a force of minute men comprising one- fourth of the military strength of the colony, appointed three veterans of the French Wars, Jedediah Preble, Artemas Ward, and Seth Pomeroy, to chief command, and resolved on the purchase of military stores to the amount of upwards of twenty thousand . pounds. This body dissolved the 29th of May, having continued its deliberations nearly four months. Mr. Green survived its final adjournment exactly two months, dying at his Royalston home of smallpox, July 29.
A year after the war opened a local committee of safety was established in Royalston and continued and maintained until the close of the Revolution. In 1778, £90 were raised for bounties, and the selectmen were charged with the duty of collecting arms and ammunition for the soldiers. In 1779, £42 were voted to every citizen who was in the service two years before. In 1780, further large sums were raised to pur- chase food and clothing for the army. Finally in 1781, when the Continental currency had become almost worthless the town raised £1000 in Spanish milled dollars with which to hire soldiers, and promised to each of her citizens who should be in the service at the end of three years "ten cows, heifers three years old with calf or with calves by their sides." These acts bespeak the patriotic spirit of the town as a whole.
But we are interested chiefly in the town's individual soldiers and in the length and character of their service. In exam- ining the records of Revolutionary soldiers one is naturally surprised at the briefness of the terms of service of many of
¿According to local tradition Nahum Green went from the second Provincial Congress into the Continental Army assembled at Cambridge. Here he is said to have contracted the smallpox of which he died in the midsummer of 1775 at his home in Royalston. His grave is located in the pasture or sprout land north of the old road and a short half mile north- west of the home where he died, and is marked by a substantial granite monument. But as to the manner in which he contracted the fatal disease the traditions differ. One story com- monly reported was that the disease first appeared at the Dyer place a mile or more south of Green's, and that it was brought to him by a big, shaggy dog that had been fondled by the convalescents at the Dyer place, and used to travel frequently from one farm to the other. Every citizen of Royalston would be glad to know for a certainty that the military traditions concerning Mr. Green were true, but no record of his name or military service can be found among the Massachusetts archives.
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HISTORY OF ROYALSTON
them, but this is accounted for by the fact that many belonged to local militia companies and were only called out in times of especial danger. We find many such from our own town who served only from 7 to 40 days as was the case with those who marched to Cambridge in response to the Lexington alarm. Others served 10 days, notably those who marched to Benning- ton to reinforce General Stark. Not infrequently we find a man credited with several such short terms of service which in the aggregate make up quite a military record.
The first organized body of troops that ever left Royalston for service in war was the company of minute men commanded by Capt. Jonas Allen which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775. Captain Allen at the outbreak of hostilities resided with his father on the place now occupied by the widow and children of the late Joseph F. Stockwell, about a mile east of the Common on the road to Winchendon. The name, rank, and length of service of each of the twenty-four men who consti- tuted Captain Allen's company is given below. They formed a part of the regiment of Col. Ephraim Doolittle.
Names
Rank Captain Lieutenant Sergeant
Service
Jonas Allen
Daniel Pike
Abiel Richardson
1
1
James Works
Isaac Nichols
66
7
Thomas Chamberlain
Corporal
1015“
Abijah Clarke
66
1015“
Bezaleel Barton, Jr.
Private
7
Ebenezer Fry
2212“
Josiah Goodale
66
7
Uzziah Green
66
7
66
James Haven
66
1015"
Joshua Hemmingway
7
Thomas Hemmingway
19 12'
Jonathan Hutchinson
66
101/2"
Jonathan Jacobs
7
John Kendall
66
7
Jesse Manley
66
1212"
Daniel Moody
66
1212“
Abijah Richardson
66
2215“
Joseph Wait
6
7
66
Nathan Wheeler, Jr.
7
Peter Woodbury, 2nd
66
7
of
h
p
1
a
1 mo. 4 days 1 mo. 11 66
1212“ 7
William Dike
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THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
After the excitement following the Lexington alarm had subsided about one-half of Captain Allen's company returned to their homes. Thirteen men, however, enlisted in Capt. Abel Wilder's company of Col. Ephraim Doolittle's regiment, Captain Allen himself being one of their number. In Captain Wilder's company he was given the rank of lieutenant. These saw service during the siege of Boston. In all we find on record, the names of twenty-one men from Royalston who served in the American Army during this siege. The alpha- betical list giving rank, company, and regiment is here inserted. Those who enlisted from Captain Allen's company are marked with an asterisk (*).
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